


The Child in Me

by Lordes



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Happy Ending, Heavy Emotions, M/M, Post Deathly Hallows, Post-Hogwarts, Romance, Wartime
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-01
Updated: 2013-09-01
Packaged: 2017-12-25 07:11:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/950193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lordes/pseuds/Lordes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With the war still raging, Harry clings to the little innocence that's left in him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Child in Me

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer:** _Harry Potter_ with all its characters and settings belongs to J.K. Rowling and her publishers; no money is made with this fanwork
> 
> Without Olimakiella and her cinnamon rolls, I would have not been able to finish this on time. Also, thank you Lordhellebore for the summary and the immensely quick beta! 
> 
> Written for prompt #11: _When Draco finds out just how much of his childhood Harry missed out on with the Dursleys, he's determined to make it all better_

Harry's head turned as Teddy came crawling into the kitchen of Grimmauld place number twelve, closely followed by Draco. He watched as the toddler reached for his favourite stuffed dragon Harry had put on one of the chairs earlier, to prevent it from getting dirty lying on the floor of the old house. They had cleaned the place after reinstalling the Order's headquarters there, but with a house-elf like Kreacher, things did not tend to stay that way. He smiled fondly first at Teddy and then up at Draco as the colours of his godson's hair changed from a soft purple to a deep green, the same colours as his dragon.

"It must be nice not to have to worry about anything," Harry said and reached over to hand him the stuffed animal. Teddy let out a happy chirp before cuddling it and putting one of the wings into his mouth. "When is Andromeda coming back?"

Draco sat down in a chair opposite of Harry, summoned a cup and poured himself some of the tea Harry had made that morning. "I'm not sure. She said she was going to pick up some groceries for tonight's meal." He wrapped his hands around the steaming cup and sipped from it.

Harry hummed in approval. Being on constant guard was tiring, especially when living mostly on Muggle take-out. He was looking forward to a decent meal.

He looked up at Draco raising a single eyebrow at him. "Sorry, what?" he said as he softly shook his head. It had been a long night of patrolling the city.

"I said," Draco repeated, "that you should probably go to bed; you look paler than Moaning Myrtle." He reached for the newspaper to Harry's left, pulled it towards him and unfolded it, sighing as the pictures on the front page started flashing and moving. "Even with all the patrolling we're doing, " Draco said as he leaned back into his chair, "it's like we're never at the right place at the right time."

Harry nodded sadly. "We're outnumbered. When we're out stopping half of them, the other half is running around free, recruiting more, killing…" He raked a hand through his hair and swallowed audibly before looking Draco in the eye. "We're losing this war, Draco, and there's nothing we can do."

"War!" Teddy happily repeated after Harry, the wing of the dragon still hanging from between his tiny teeth. He wiggled his butt around, looked down at his crotch, poked it and looked back up, first at Harry and then at Draco with big sad eyes. "Teddy bah," he said, pouting slightly.

Harry stood up and stretched his back as Draco folded the newspaper back up. "I got it," Draco said before getting up as well. "You need to rest."

His back popped and Harry nodded. He bent down to give Teddy a kiss on the cheek. "See you later, kiddo, be good." He looked over at Draco and smiled. "Night."

"Goodnight Harry," Draco answered with a soft smile, picking Teddy up from the floor. "Sleep well."

"Be good!" Teddy raised his arms happily to emphasise the point he had so obviously made. Draco laughed and petted the green mob of hair on his tiny head.

"Yes, Harry needs to be good, too, don't you, Harry?"

Harry's stomach did a double loop. He looked at Teddy, who was now busy shaking his dragon up and down. "Fly, fly!" The wings of the dragon flopped up and down, the dry one a little bit more enthusiastically than the one Teddy had previously been chewing on. How toys like that would have made his childhood better; how a real family would have! Harry mentally shook his head at himself. He was being envious of a two-year-old, and his godson at that. He must really be tired.

"I'll be good," he answered in a small voice. "Promise."

Draco gave him a warm smile before whispering something in Teddy's ear, waving his tiny hand for him and leaving the kitchen.

oO0~0Oo

The stack of papers he had been holding flew all across the stairs as Harry toppled forward. He hit his knee on one of the steps and cursed, moving around the maps, pictures and documents to find the cause for his fall. His hand found a plastic form, which turned out to be one of Teddy's toy trains. He picked it up and threw it down the stairs and against the wall in frustration. The train let out a puff of white smoke, spinning its little wheels around angrily, making a zooming sound. Harry let out a sigh and rubbed his hands over his face. They had lost two Order members tonight, two brothers. Harry had not been close to them, had not even known their names; he had never bothered to ask. One of them had only been 15. They had been patrolling a part of the city they had deemed 'cleared' of all Death Eater activity. They had been so, so wrong.

Harry grabbed his wand and summoned the papers surrounding him, neatly stacking them once again. He made his way halfway up another flight of stairs when the zooming sound of spinning wheels stopped him. He levitated the stack up higher and parked it in front of his bedroom door before tracing his steps back down towards the red toy. As he stood in front of it, the train seemed to calm down and, with another two puffs of smoke, stopped moving. Harry bent down and looked at it, extended his hand and let it hover, wondering what he was about to do.

Maybe it was the stress, Harry figured. Maybe it was just something he needed to do to unwind for a bit. To pretend, just like Teddy, that the war did not exist. It was not going to hurt anybody, and he would give the toy back before Teddy would even be able to notice it had gone.

He looked over his shoulder to make sure nobody was watching, just because he did not feel like explaining anything to anybody right now, and picked it up. The toy felt warm in his hand, and right, so right. He softly caressed the back of it, tracing the lines with his finger, slowly moving down, finding the wheels. They moved pliable under his finger, turning when he wanted them to. A shiver ran down his back and he sighed, a warm feeling spreading through his chest.

He turned around swiftly as he heard the front door close, clinging to the train, pushing it against his chest. He looked down. This was wrong; he should put it back. Harry looked around anxiously, trying to find a place to put it. The nice, warm feeling turned cold and the shiver running down his spine this time had him crawl with nerves.

"Harry?" He heard a female voice call up from the kitchen. "Harry are you up there?" Soft footfalls echoed in the empty hallway as Harry stood frozen to the spot. He had to do something, and he had to decide fast. As the shadow of the woman came closer he made his decision and bolted up the stairs, pushed open his bedroom door and shoved the train under his bed.

"Harry, there you are! I've been looking all over for you." Harry turned around just as Hermione was about to enter his bedroom. A puzzled look crossed her face as she found her friend sitting, panting, on the bedroom floor.

"Is everything okay?" she asked. "You're not hurt, are you?" She moved closer and crouched in front of him, letting her hand rest on his forehead. "You're clammy, but you don't feel cold."

Harry cleared his throat and then cleared it again, trying to find his voice. "I'm fine, Hermione, just a little tired.”

Hermione nodded. "Understandable. Did you hear about-"

"I did," Harry said. "Only 15, too. We should've never let him patrol."

"We're not much older, though." Hermione reached out and moved his hair away from Harry's forehead. "And remember when we were 15," she said. "We broke into the Ministry, fought a small group of Voldemort's inner circle and lived to tell the tale."

"I feel older," Harry answered. He patted her hand away and looked at her.

Hermione looked back at him with sad eyes. "I know." She paused. "I do, too."

oO0~0Oo

The red train became Harry's little secret. He would come home after patrolling, take it out from under his bed and spend the majority of the night crawling after it as it moved across the room. He did not return it. Harry had decided that Teddy had enough toys as it was, and if he would really miss his train, Harry would just go out and buy him a new one.

Harry smiled widely as his train zoomed towards him after looping around. He spread his knees and watched as it moved through them. It made another loop on the other side of his room and blew its horn. Harry lay back on the ground and watched as big puffs of white smoke slowly made its way up to the ceiling before evaporating. As his eyes started to slowly droop and his train made a stop near his leg, he decided that the war really was not as hard anymore, as long as he had his toy.

oO0~0Oo

Draco entered the sitting room and let himself fall back on the couch next to Harry, who was bouncing Teddy on one of his knees, making the toddler cry out in laughter.

"Rough day?" Harry asked as he steadied Teddy and put him back on the ground. Teddy's hair went from black to platinum blonde as he waved at Draco before crawling away towards his toys. Harry gave a pained look as he saw how careless his godson treated his stuffed animals; pulling, pushing and throwing them around. He would be so much more careful with them if they were his!

But they were not.

Yet.

"A little, yes." Draco's voice snapped Harry back to reality. "There was a fuss at the Ministry about infiltration. Nearly started a riot."

Harry nodded absentmindedly. Teddy was apparently determined to rip his dragon into two halves. He had put one of the green and purple wings into his mouth and was pulling one of the legs with his hands. The stuffed animal made a soft ripping sound and Harry winced.

As his thoughts got the better of him once more, he noticed the silence that had not been there before, and dared to look to his left. Draco was staring at him, unimpressed, one eyebrow raised up so high it nearly disappeared behind the hair hanging casually over his forehead.

"You're not listening," he said. There was no question in his voice, only statement and accusation. "I was talking, and you weren't listening."

Harry's eyes went to Teddy, the dragon, and back to Draco. He swallowed past the lump in his throat and cleared it.

"I was just thin-"

"What could've _possibly_ been more important to you than my day?" Draco interrupted him. He sounded offended, but also, somehow… amused.

"Teddy's birthday?" Harry carefully tried.

Draco laughed and playfully punched Harry on the shoulder. "I figured, and I have been thinking about that myself."

Harry looked at Draco, and not for the first time realised how much the man had changed. Or maybe he had not. Maybe if Harry had just bothered to look further than his teenage mind would take him, he would have seen.

"What's on your mind? You look absolutely lost," Draco said.

Harry wondered about his answer, then decided it was not worth bothering with much. Draco would probably just take it as a compliment and move on.

"You, actually," he said and when Draco did not answer, but only grinned, continued: "About how much you've changed. To me, anyway."

"I don't feel the absolute urge to punch you anymore, if that's what you mean," Draco answered, a smug smile on his face. "At least not _all_ the time. There are still those moments…"

"Moments?" This time it was Harry's turn to raise his eyebrow at Draco.

"Oh yes, you know; those moments in which you're so… _you_." Draco's smile widened as he slouched back casually. "So what did you want to do for Teddy's birthday?"

"Don't you dare change the subject on me!" Harry spluttered.

Draco continued as if Harry had not said anything. "I was thinking about another train set. His red one seems to have mysteriously disappeared.”

oO0~0Oo

The weather was bleak, dark and rainy, and when Harry finally found and entered the shop, he was soaked and frozen to the bone. In his excitement, Harry had ran out of the door without his wand, which was stupid in more ways than just one, he did realise that. However, being him and being overly enthusiastic about what he was about to do, he had not bothered to turn around and actually fetch it. _If I'm going to die today, at least I'll die happy,_ he thought as the bell above the shop chimed twice.

Harry did not know where to look. There were stuffed dragons and birds flying above his head, the enchanted ceiling looking like a clear, blue sky. Around him teddy bears were walking and greeted him, dolls chased each other, filling the shop with giggles, and trains were riding around on their tracks, puffs of white smoke rising up towards the sky, creating tiny little clouds.

If only he had had that when he was younger! He finally realised why Dudley was as spoiled as he had been.

He started to walk around aimlessly, randomly picking up toys, squeezing them, hugging them or moving them around to see what they were for. He got strange looks from customers recognising him, fearing him, or both. He did not pay them much attention. All of it was aimed at what he was going to buy. For Teddy, of course.

A green train passed Harry on the track in front of him, whistling, catching his eye. Harry put down the illustrated version of The Tales of Beedle and the Bard he had been going through, mostly looking at the pictures, and followed it to the end of the track where it had stopped.

He picked it up and looked at it, holding it close to his eyes so he could see all the little details. It was beautiful. Teddy would love it.

He gave a sad sigh. Teddy would _love_ it.

oO0~0Oo

"It's perfect," Draco said as he lifted the box up and into the light. The little train shone a dark, emerald green under the light of the candles illuminating the room. "Perfect colour, too." Draco winked at Harry. "I do think we ought to wrap it, though. You know how Teddy is when it comes to gifts."

Harry nodded, yearning to take the box out of Draco's hands and hide it somewhere safe. He had put it on top of his drawer when he had come back to Grimmauld Place, and after he had sat and listened to Draco's rant about how irresponsible it had been not to take his wand with him, the sight of the train cheered him back up. Had he not realised how worried everybody had been? It had been annoying, almost depressing. He really did not like Draco yelling at him. However, all that had melted away like a Horcrux under a Basilisk's fang when he had put the train up on his drawer. That had been a week ago. Every single night before Harry went to bed he would sit on the floor and stare up at it, wish it a good night and apologise to his red train. They were incomparable, though. His red train was obviously a lot of fun, and Harry had grown quite attached to it as it had been his very _first_ real toy, but it was not like the green one. The green one _shone_ , and Harry wanted to have it.

The other toys he now owned, all long forgotten by Teddy, were safely in his old Hogwarts trunk under his bed. Every day he would take them out one by one and play with each and every single one of them, then put them all back neatly. Those moments were precious to him; at least they used to be. Lately, all Harry could think about was that brilliantly green train.

"We probably should, yes, but maybe not just yet," Harry said and carefully looked over at Draco. "Just to enjoy the perfection of the gift I chose, of course." There was a lump in Harry's throat again, but he did not dare to swallow. He did not dare to appear nervous. Draco must not find out. What would he think of Harry if he would? He would not understand. Draco had probably had all the toys when he had been younger, just like Dudley, and kids like Dudley and Draco just did not get what it was like to grow up without them. What it was like, what it _is_ like, to live in a world that is at war without any outlet, any happy memory from your childhood. No, Draco could not find out.

Draco put down the train and sauntered over to where Harry was standing. "Aren't we smug?" he said, his voice deep. Draco was almost a foot taller than Harry, who raised his chin to make up for the height difference.

"Well, you said it yourself. It _is_ perfect."

Draco hummed approvingly, now comfortably _and_ uncomfortably close to Harry. He cursed inwardly. After Ginny, Harry had decided never to mess with friends anymore, no matter how gorgeously handsome said friend was. So far, he had managed to stick to that rule, even _with_ Draco's recurring advances on him. That same Draco was now bending down towards his face. Harry froze. He could step back, he _should_ step back. He was not stepping back. However, instead of going for the obvious kiss that Harry had been expecting, Draco leaned further in.

"Why don't you just let go, Harry?" he whispered softly, his breath tickling Harry's ear. When Harry felt one of Draco's hands softly rest on his hip his breath stopped for a short moment, his heart skipping a beat. "Why don't you just…" Draco licked his earlobe before gently nibbling on it, “let me take care of you?" 

Harry's eyes went wide. He had not said that. Well, he obviously _had_ , there was no doubt about that. Not with Draco being as close as he was. Why did this make him so happy, anyway? Did Draco mean what Harry wanted it to mean? And what _did_ he want it to mean? He was confused. Utterly and unmistakably confused. He had been for a while, too, and Draco moving slowly from his ear to his mouth, planting tiny kisses on his cheek along the way did _not_ help. Then why did he not move? Why did he not move when Draco's mouth finally reached his? Why did he not move when Draco started kissing him, and why did he kiss back? He could have stopped this, but he did not, and tried to will his brain to shut up while Draco's hands pulled him closer to deepen the kiss.

oO0~0Oo

The room was lit by at least fifty differently coloured lanterns, all floating against the ceiling, engulfing everybody in a multi-coloured glow. Teddy was on Andromeda's lap, unwrapping one of her presents, babbling animatedly in his little toddler language. Harry's heart warmed at the sight. Hermione walked into the sitting room with a big birthday cake in the shape of a green dragon while Ron was chatting with George. It was good to see the older Weasley brother out of the house again. Opposite of Andromeda was Kingsley with some of the Aurors from the Ministry and Minerva was putting another gift on the already crowded tabletop. Harry saw Teddy's eyes grow wide as he noticed the cake and dropped the now forgotten toy on the ground, trying to get to it.

Hermione laughed at the display. "You'll have to wait until everybody's here, Teddy." She put the cake down on the table.

Teddy let out a chirp and chanted, "Mine, mine!"

Harry laughed and let his gaze go over the room again. However, instead of seeing what he had seen earlier, he now noticed something he wished he had not. Everywhere around the room there were half unwrapped, forgotten toys. Harry noticed the copy of The Tales of Beedle and the Bart he had eyed the other day in the toy shop, only a corner of the book showing, but Harry recognised it. He would recognise that cover anywhere. Next to the couch there were two sets of blocks, still in their boxes and with the paper hanging off them. On the other side of the table was another train set, a purple one, probably from Draco. Probably to match Harry's green one and Teddy's two favourite colours - purple and green - only partly taken out of its box and wrappings.

And then there was the toy Teddy had thrown away when something bigger and prettier had come along. Harry could see the leg of a teddy bear sticking out of its wrapping paper. He walked over to the gift table and put his own gift on top of the many others, then crouched and reached for the leg of the bear. It felt soft in his hand. He turned it around and pulled the bow that was still on it, holding the package together. The bear, probably feeling that it was getting unwrapped, started wiggling his little leg around. Harry let the paper fall off it. He looked at it. It was very pretty, dark brown and curly with a little red bowtie around its neck. The bear wiggled some more as Harry stroked its furry head and hugged it. The bear hugged back. _I'll name you Matt_ , he thought as he nodded to himself and hugged the bear, Matt, tighter.

A sad realisation hit him as he heard Teddy's voice in the background. The bear was not his, and it was not his to name. It was Teddy's, even though Teddy probably did not even want it, did not even _care_ for it. Matt would never get the attention he deserved from Teddy. He would probably just end up abandoned like so many other toys, in a corner or a box, chewed on, thrown away, _forgotten_. Harry could not let that happen. He could not let Matt get hurt like that. He looked around to see if anybody was paying attention to him, and fled the room.

Draco shook his head, excused himself from the conversation he was having with Luna and followed Harry up to Harry's room.

As he was about to knock on Harry's door, a voice made him spin around. "What's wrong with Harry?" Luna asked, the feathers attached to her hair slowly glowing brighter and dimmer as she talked. As Draco did not answer, she continued, "He's been awfully quiet lately, always locking himself up with those toys." Her eyes had a distant look in them, a look Draco had grown accustomed to by now.

He raised his eyebrows at her. "Toys?" he asked. "What kind of… toys?" His mind immediately, and without much trouble, produced a set of images of Harry in some very revealing positions. He grinned at Luna and looked back over his shoulder at the door.

"Yes, toys. You know: trains, blocks, stuffed animals, colouring books: toys," Luna answered him.

Draco looked confused. What would Harry be doing with toys? Once again he looked over his shoulder at the door, only this time in bewilderment. He raised his hand to knock, then looked back at Luna uncertainly.

"Yes, I think you should talk to him. You two seem to be pretty close. I'm sure Harry will feel safe opening up to you. Bye, Draco." She smiled and turned around, skipping back down the stairs.

Draco wasn't sure how long he had been standing there, staring after Luna, or the corner she had disappeared behind. He had not even realised his fist was still up in the air, ready to knock on the hard wooden door in front of him, when a whistle coming from inside of the room made him snap back to reality. He let his hand rest on the doorknob, but made the decision to open it when he heard Harry laugh the most… Draco had no other word for it but 'childlike' laugh he had ever heard Harry make.

The door creaked as Draco pushed it open, but Harry did not seem to notice. He was engulfed in colouring in one of his colouring books, a dark brown teddy bear with a funny red bow tie sitting next to him and a red train zooming around the room, whistling every time it made a turn. He watched as the bear turned his head around towards him and waved his furry little paw.

"Harry?" Draco tried, carefully. "Harry, what's going on?"

oO0~0Oo

They had been sitting on the bed for a good half an hour now. He was waiting for Harry to talk, while Harry was apparently determined to stare the skin off his hands. Draco had gone down to tell everybody that Harry was not feeling well, that he was happy they had all come for Teddy's birthday party, but that he was going to lie down. Some of the guests, including Hermione, of course, had asked him some questions he really did not feel like answering, mainly because he did not know _how_ to answer them. He had told them that he was just the messenger, that Harry was asleep right now, and had left. It would probably give them something to answer to when they would come down, especially after Draco had disappeared from the party as well, but they could deal with that later.

"I never had any toys you know," Harry said suddenly, his eyes still directed at his lap. Draco did not answer, too scared Harry might stop talking again and he would have to wait another two hours.

"You wouldn't understand." Harry shrugged once. "You probably had everything you could ever dream of." Pause. Draco heard Harry sniff and started to reach out, but retracted his hand when Harry continued, still not sure about what to do.

"When I saw Teddy play with his dragon…" Harry shook his head, his hair moving, covering up the parts of his face that had still been visible before. "It felt as if the war didn't exist, the threat wasn't there and there was no danger. He looked so happy and so peaceful; I wanted that too."

"But why?" Draco asked and swallowed around the lump in his throat. He was too nervous to really say something, but at the same time too curious not to ask.

Harry shrugged again but this time dared to look up at him. His eyes were red and tired-looking. "I'm not sure myself." He looked around the room at his toys and the train that was still zooming around. "They just make me happy, they make me forget."

Draco nodded and followed Harry's gaze. When his eyes fell upon the brown bear the toy turned and waved at him again, and this time Draco waved back carefully. He recognised the bear now, it had been a gift from Andromeda. A gift for _Teddy_. He started looking more closely at what was around him. He recognised the train now, too. It was the red train he had been looking for, for weeks, the train that had disappeared, apparently, not so mysteriously at all. And the crayons and the colouring book, Draco recognised Teddy's colouring on the one page, and Harry's on the other. It was odd, but it explained a lot of things at the same time.

"Are they all Teddy's?" he asked and this time did find the courage to pet Harry's shoulder softly.

Harry shook his head. "No, they're all mine." He sounded affronted. "Teddy didn't want them anymore, he wasn't taking care of them." He paused again and bent over the bed to grab the teddy bear. "He didn't appreciate them." He gave Draco a look that looked almost like a pout and hugged the stuffed animal close to his body, then sighed and put it down on the bed. The bear waved at Harry first, then, again, at Draco. Apparently waving was its 'thing'.

"Harry, the toys _are_ still Teddy's," Draco said, his voice sad and soft.

Harry did not answer him. Instead he was fumbling with the bear's bowtie. The teddy would raise its little arm again and again to wave at Harry, cocking its head slightly. Draco had to agree it looked kind of cute.

"The train isn't,” he said.

Draco looked back from the bear to Harry and then to the red train, confused. Said train had stopped and was now what seemed to be resting in one of the bedroom's corners, slowly puffing white smoke towards the ceiling.

"Not that train," Harry said, redirecting Draco's attention back to him. "The green one. I gave him _my_ green train." He breathed in with a hiccup and a single tear rolled down his face. "I want it back."

Draco's heart broke. He reached out for Harry and, pushing the waving teddy bear aside, engulfed him in a tight hug. Harry started sobbing, clinging to Draco's back as if his life depended on it, wetting his shirt. Draco could not care less, and he would make it better, all of it.

He would give Harry the childhood he had dreamt of.

oO0~0Oo

The toy shop was just like Harry remembered. With flying dragons and birds, trains zooming around, books, crayons and so much more. Harry's eyes fell on a set of blocks that, if you spelled a word wrong, would change colours and spell it for you, but Draco reminded him that they were here for one thing only.

When they had come down again most of their friends had already left the party. Teddy was sleeping in his crib and Hermione was helping Andromeda clean up the mess of paper, wrappings, bows and lanterns while Charlie, George and Ron were helping to clean up the remainders of the cake. They had all wanted to know what had been wrong, and Harry, to Draco's surprise, had shrugged it off with the casual excuse of having eaten something wrong the day before.

"Oh, look, Draco, here it is!" Harry was jumping up and down with a box containing a shiny, emerald green train in his hands, a big grin showing on his face.

Draco smiled at him, happy to see his new boyfriend so happy again. He had not realised how quiet Harry had been until he had started laughing again. Harry had been right; he, and Draco too, needed a distraction from the war. Harry had his toys, and now Draco had Harry.

"Calm down, will you?" Draco laughed. "You're attracting way more attention than is good for you.” Harry stopped bouncing and pressed a quick kiss on Draco's lips. "Let's go find the teddies!" He ran off before Draco could stop him, and Draco shook his head. _That man_ , he thought, _that man is going to be the end of me._

When he got to the teddy bear department, a huge corner filled with displays of differently coloured teddy bears, he found Harry again. Some of the bears were waving, some were wiggling their legs and some just rocked to and fro on their shelves. There were blonde ones, brown ones, red ones, black ones and even purple ones. Harry picked up a blonde one with a tiny green Slytherin tie around its neck and handed it to Draco. "This one looks like you." he said with a smile.

Draco looked up. The shelf in front of him seemed to be dedicated to the Hogwarts houses. Every single house had every single coloured teddy bear in stock, each with a tie in one of the house colours around its neck. He spotted a black one on the Gryffindor shelf and pointed it out to Harry, who made it float off it and into his hands.

"We're here to find another 'Matt', though," Draco said, but still collected the black one from Harry and put it in their shopping basket. They had to look around, but managed to find one, in the end; another dark brown, curly-haired bear with a red bowtie. Draco put it in his basket with the other two bears, which all started waving at and hugging each other.

As Harry hugged him from behind, Draco grinned at the silliness of it all.

oO0~0Oo

"You really seem to like that bowtie, don't you?" Draco asked as they were sitting in bed together, him reading a book and Harry once again playing with the bowtie of his bear. They had moved into the same room shortly after Draco had found out about Harry's little secret, under the agreement of Harry putting his toys away after he was done playing with them. Harry seemed to be okay with that. He was still using his old Hogwarts trunk to store the majority of them, however Draco had bought him another 'real' toy box to put his more valuable toys in. It was where his favourite colouring book, his favourite colours and his green and red train were. Draco did not like a messy room, however he had made one exception. He had made a single shelf above their bed, on which a blonde bear with a green tie and a black bear with a red one were now linked in what seemed to be a permanent hug.

"But don't you know, Draco? Bowties are cool."

~Fin


End file.
